which one would u choose. 30.06 is cheaper and thats a plus. but the 300 has better range/firepower. trying to decide what caliber to get. plan on hunting pigs, bear, blacktail deer, and mule deer, and maybe antelope sometime in the future. would appreicate you opinions.

To each his own but I have used a 30-06 for years on dozens of deer, elk, antelope etc.
It seems to do just fine. More power with the mag but do you really need it? I don't believe so 99.99% of the time. Besides your gonna have more recoil, louder muzzle blast, higher cost of ammo just to name a couple of reasons in favor of a '06. The 30-06 was introduced 100 years ago and is the number one selling hunting caliber in the nation hard to argue with that kinda success.

well if you go with a premium factory loading the price for ammo will be about the same. but i would go with the 30-06, you can find ammo for it anywhere. unless of course you get bit by the magnum bug

And lets face it, if you can't hit a pie plate consistantly from what ever position you shoot in, in the field, then you have no buisness shooting that far. 30-06 will do 99% of all big game hunting in the US and do it well.

Mete, I'd even be willing to say the the .30-06 will be able to do the job to 500 yards easily and much further than that if the shooter is qualified. I think the longest shot I'd take at a deer would be 250-300 yards anyway, so I'm a .30-06 guy.

None of the game you mentioned you would like to hunt requires a Magnum caliber rifle, but both rifles you mentioned will surely get the job done. I like the .30-06 and will reccomend that rifle above the .300 Win Mag, especially if you are new to shooting centerfire rifles. I think that if you handload the .30-06 is more versitile than the .300 Win, but that is just my opinion. I don't really think that Magnum cartridges were really invented to improve long range hunting but to hit harder within normal hunting ranges so that most animals in heavy cover didn't need to be tracked. Check out http://www.federalpremium.com/default.asp?br=1 use their ballistics catalog to help you to decide if you need the Magnum rifle or not.

If you are reasonably assured that you won't take a shot beyond, say, 300 yards, the .30-'06 is most definitely "enough gun" for legal hunting in the lower 48. So are many other cartridges, including the .308.

(There are the exceptions of the feral cattle in the canebrakes of the lower Rio Grande, and the Nilghai of the King Ranch, in Texas. There, such as the .338 and African cartridges become highly desirable.)

If you drop back to, say, 200 yards, you get into .243 and .30-30 country.

Again, here, I'm talking about the average hunter/shooter. There are always some who are well above average; there are some who couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle if they were locked in a closet.

Art

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I live in southeastern Oklahoma, where a long shot is about 150 yards. I have a freind that hunts with a 300 every year for our whitetail. He does very well with it, but I really do a lot of trailing for him, if he has to take a 50 yard shot. It seems to me that a .308 or 30-30 is a much better rifle for our ranges out here.(lots of brush and trees) My son shoots a 30.06, and does very well with it, but the .308 and the 30.06 are almost identicle calibers out to 250 yards, and the recoil of the .308 is much lighter. The 30.06 is a great caliber, as is the 300, but you must consider where you are going to hunt and what type of game you will be hunting, as well as how far you may have to shoot. All three calibers are great calibers, and will all do well for hunting about anything in the lower 48. The ammo cost for the .308 is probably the biggest difference in the three calibers.

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